Janize strode into her royal bathroom, dismissing with a wave of her hand, the servants who were ministering to Leila. Looking up from where she soaked in the marble bath, Leila smiled.
“So…what did Darius call me this time?” she asked.
“Alien, which is rather uninventive if I may say so myself,” said the princess. Leila snorted and continued to wash herself as the lady changed out of her ornate dress into swimwear.
“So why did you actually dismiss Elia?” Janize asked after she changed.
Leila sighed. “She was homesick and was worried about her family. You know how the war is going.”
“Ah, well that’s very kind of you Leila,” Janize grimaced as she lowered herself into the pool of steaming water. “If only my brother wasn’t such a fool in allying himself with the Alavari.” Janize smiled keenly at Leila. “Are you going to join me tonight?”
“I will. I just…need some time alone,” said Leila. Idly she scratched at a deep cut along her jaw that seemed more like a scrape.
Janize slipped into the water, sighing as she relaxed. “What’s on your mind, Leila?”
The dark-skinned girl squirmed and sunk deeper into the water, blowing bubbles with her mouth.
“You. Why do you want me? I’m useful to you, but as Earl Darius said, I’m also a threat.” Leila eyed Janize, her dark brown eyes narrowed. “You’re the queen of Erisdale. You could kill me. You are discussing with Earl Darius on how to kill me after the war. You could make that come true.”
Janize reached over to squeeze Leila’s shoulder. “I’m not a fool, Leila. I know my ‘dear husband’ has designs for the throne of Erisdale once I birth our heir.”
Leila met the queen’s eye. “So I’m your blunt instrument to take him out?”
“You’re my friend, Leila. One of the few people I trust,” said Janize, smiling beautifically.
“You’re keeping things awfully close to your chest for someone who trusts me,” said Leila. She was smiling, but her tone was sardonic.
“What you don’t know won’t harm you, Leila. We can’t afford Darius becoming suspicious,” said Janize. The queen sidled up to the Otherworlder, brushing her arm by the younger woman’s. “Besides, I trust you with me.”
Leila sighed and ran her hand through her wet hair. “Alright alright.” She glanced at the queen. “How do you feel, being pregnant with his child?”
The queen pursed her lips, one hand over her stomach. “Strange. You know I respect the Earl, even if I’m wary of him. That his blood is in me, literally, is… intriguing.” Janize pursed her lips. “This child…much of its future is laid out before it and whether it will be a boy or girl, they are already in incredible danger.” Janize smiled mirthlessly. “Jerome and Queen Forowena will want it and me dead.”
Leila snorted. “Those goody-two-shoes wouldn’t dare.”
“We’re fighting a war Leila and we haven’t exactly endeared ourselves to them. Oh they’ll do it. I have no doubt.” Janize faced the Otherworlder, pale grey eyes narrowed. “But you’ll protect me, won’t you Leila?
Leila nodded fervently much to Janize’s satisfaction. Grinning, the queen slid up to Leila and pressed her lips gently on her cheek.
Breathless, Leila stammered, “Your Majesty…”
Janize rose out of the water, stepping out of the bath with practices ease. “Towel me down, Leila. There’s some time to enjoy ourselves before dinner.”
The queen winked at the Otherworlder. Just as Janize had planned planned, Leila scrambled out and grabbed a spare towel.
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Elizabeth looked up from her map of the city as Martin and Ginger marched in. “How many?”
Ginger grimaced. “Fifty dead, and another forty-eight combat ineffective. There was no saving Lady Atlatl as you know. Fuck, she had a good head on her shoulders.”
“At least we know they pulled all their Otherworlders here,” said Elizabeth. She ran a hand through her hair. “I’m glad I’m staying here and don’t have to see them. The things some of them have done…I wouldn’t know whether to kill Leila or punch her in the face.”
Martin chuckled sardonically. “Why not both? In any case, we need another commander for that flank. Ginger and I can’t be everywhere at once and Ayax is with our mages.”
Elizabeth nodded. “I know, which is why I have fortuituously managed to convince your mothers to send your sister Mara with a regiment of the finest Conthwaite guardsman.”
The knight instantly brightened up. “Mara’s coming? Here? Oh goodness. I thought she was still recovering from that injury she got last year.”
“She’s better enough to ride now,” said Elizabeth. “So she can be one of our flank commanders.”
“That’s good, but have you figured out a way for us to counter their Otherworlders?”
“That I’m still working on. The problem is that we’re the ones attacking this time, and they’re the ones with Otherworlders.” Elizabeth slid over a drawing to Martin and Ginger from across the table. “We need to complete our encircling fortifications. I’ve been consulting with Jim, and Earl Forowena, the best way for us to block off their land access is to completely surround the city with ditches and palisades. This will prevent a breakout and a impede any attempt for them to sally forth.”
“That’ll be a lot of work, but…it will protect our camp,” said Ginger, rubbing her chin.
Martin was looking around, his brow furrowed. “Where’s Ayax by the way?”
Elizabet smiled cryptically. “Ah, I was thinking of a way we could take the gatehouse faster and Ayax had an idea. Let’s just say she’s rehearsing it with some of our best. Unfortunately, we’ll have to use the Wallmonger. I was hoping to keep it secret, but we need to get this siege under way.”
Ginger sighed. “Well, at least the Wallmonger will probably get the job done.”
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Nighttime, a few days later…
“This plan is kind of crazy,” said Jessica.
“You didn’t say it was a bad plan, though,” said Ayax, smiling at the human mage.
The scarred human Otherworlder snorted. “No. I just hope they haven’t thought of this weakness.”
“I hope so too,” said Ayax. She raised her hand. “Move up. Columbine, tell Lady Mara to begin the bombardment. Noff, make sure our troops are ready.””
“Yes ma’am!” snapped the married human pair, who ran down the line of crouching fighters and mages.
They were all pressed up against craggy face of The Beak. They’d made no attempt to scale it. Their goal was the wall that grew from the mountain’s side.
The Bloody Wall offered an excellent view of the surrounding area, but the sheer size of The Beak and the way it extended outward meant that part of the mountain could be used to hide the approach of a small attacking force.
Especially if this force came out only at night, crept along the very edge of the Grey Cliffs, far, far from view of the wall and up to The Beak. Then the shadow of the mountain itself would allow the small battalion of three hundred to creep up along the mountain face until they were but a short jog from the wall.
In daylight, such an assault would still be suicide. There was still a ditch. The walls themselves were high and the tops of the Bloody Wall had overhanging machicolations, allowing defenders to drop rocks and stones onto attackers.
However, night cloaked the attackers with a cape of stealth. The bombardment deafened the enemy. The bright flashes of the cannons set up to bombard the gatehouse and the whine and crash of iron on stone nailed the defenders' attention to the centre of the wall.
As the bombardment began Ayax took a deep breath.
“Go!”
Three hundred of the Lightning Battalion’s best charged across the field in near complete silence. Their armor had been covered with cloaks, weapons sheathed to prevent any glinting. Just in case any guards were being attentive, a team of mages led by Jessica took up position by the ditch, eyes scanning the wall.
The ditch itself was a significant obstacle, but the Lightning Battalion had dealt with such ditches before.
Almost every soldier in the group of three hundred carried a bundle of brushwood that was soon tossed into the ditch. With some singing from the mages to bolster the structure with earth, a smooth ramp soon spanned across the ditch.
Then came the ladders. Five ladders slapped against the wall, just tall enough to reach the wall. Ayax was first to scurry up them, her staff across her back. All the while she watched the battlements, hoping nobody had noticed. She got nearer and nearer to them as she scrambled up and put her hand on the sandstone masonry for the final pull.
And just like that she was over, looking down along the lantern-lit span of the wall, watching cannonballs slam into the gatehouse far ahead of her.
There were guards off in the distance, but they hadn’t noticed her. They were pinned behind the wall, trying to take cover.
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“Come on! Everybody up!” Ayax hissed, helping Jessica onto the rampart.
They’d gotten about twenty people onto the wall when someone finally noticed.
Horns blew over the bombardment, and Ayax could see the guards in the distance start to run towards her.
“Enemies on the walls!” someone yelled.
“Jessica begin Phase Two!” Ayax snapped. Taking a deep breath, she started her cousin’s lightning spell, as Jessica began a spell of her own.
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Elizabeth’s eyes were narrowed on the end of the wall and she grimaced as she saw and heard the crash of thunder that arched forward across the wall.
Right after, she saw a green flare arch up into the sky.
“Phase two! All batteries open up with smoke shells. Advance to the ladders! Breaching squad to the walls!” Elizabeth bellowed.
A combination of magic and chemistry had led the Erisdalians to design a smoke rounds that now streaked toward the wall, leaving a trail of white. The semi-hollow rounds thudded against the wall, bouncing off. Yet they still kicked up a huge white cloud that clouded the ramparts from view.
About four thousand soldiers of the allied army, made up of the veteran Lightning Battalions charged toward the wall, racing for the ladders that Ayax and her battalion were defending. The smoke covered their advance and should they reach the walls, they could put the final stage of Ayax and Elizabeth’s plan into action.
At least this was what Elizabeth, who was observing the battle from a trench, hoped.
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They’d caught the defenders asleep and by surprise, which in Ayax’s opinion, was what was saving them.
By the time more companies of soldiers were arriving, Ayax’s entire battalion was onto the wall and starting to secure the stairs coming off of the wall.
This was good because Ayax soon found herself engaged by two enemy mages.
They both weren’t her level, and she found she could steadily advance, dodging and shielding against their bolts of magic and spells. The rampart was fairly narrow, but it was wide enough for Ayax to dodge left and right.
That and she wasn’t alone.
Jessica lobbed an arching fireball that soared above Ayax’s head and down toward the enemy mages. The one closer to Ayax ran forward, whilst the one farther away immediately threw up a shield.
Focusing on the one who’d run forward, Ayax yelled a Word of Power and slammed her staff into the mage’s hasty shield. It sent the man flying into the rampart. Ayax proceeded to slam her staff into the mage’s knee before throwing a card into his face, yelling the activation word. As the card touched the mage’s head, he fell limp, fast asleep.
Turning her attention to the other mage, Ayax found Jessica bombarding it with magic bolts, keeping the enemy mage behind her shields. Dashing forward, the troll hit the back of the enemy mage with her staff, knocking her down. As Ayax, still singing, whirled her staff to land the final blow, the mage threw down her wand.
“I surrender! I surrender!” stammered the girl.
“Take her!” Ayax yelled to the nearby soldiers before moving on, her troops following behind her.
“More troops! Looks like another regiment!” yelled Columbine.
“Musketeers return fire, pikemen block those stairs!” Ayax whirled around and looked over the wall back towards their camp. Where was the Breaching Squad?
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Despite the smoke cover that the shells had brought them, sporadic musket fire still peppered the charging veterans. Alavari and human soldiers fell, much to Ginger’s frustration as their force quickly thrust ladders across the ditch and then dropped pre-prepared wooden planks to form a rough bridge. Most of the force however, actually slid into the ditch and waited in it.
More importantly, though, the smoke had bought Ginger and her group enough time to get into under the guns of the walls. They soon were racing up towards the sandstone walls.
“Bring in the bomb! Covering fire!” Ginger ordered.
Several of their largest trolls and orcs carried a massive metal construction roughly shaped like an iron toward the wall. Meanwhile, musketeers and mages fired up at the ramparts keeping the defenders heads down.
They bought just enough time for the Alavari to set the object against the wall.
“Clear the Wallmonger and blow it! Get back to the ditch!!” Ginger bellowed, running as fast as her feet would take her.
The “Wallmonger” as Ginger called it was one of the trump cards the Lightning Battalion had taken to the siege. Earlier bombs that the Lightning Battalion had placed against different walls in other sieges had had mixed effect.
The Wallmonger however was a primitive shaped charge, forged with steel and meant to direct the force of the blast against the wall itself. They’d tested it while expanding some of Athelda-Aoun’s tunnels to great effect, but now it would be used against a wall.
As the fuse ran into the iron charge, Ginger ducked and clamped her hands over her ears. Still, the thudding boom deafened her and she could hear the crash of stone and screech of grinding masonry as it fell to the ground.
When Ginger looked up, she couldn’t help but grin. There was a breach in the wall.
“Well, up and at em!” she bellowed, leaping up out of the ditch.
The troops yelled hoorah, bellowing as they followed her.
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The next morning…
The silver lightning bolt of the Lightning Battalion flags flew above the Bloody Wall as Elizabeth did a walk over the ramparts.
Before her, was Erisdale city itself. Densely packed buildings cut through by winding roads that ran down towards the harbour area.
At the harbour itself, was their goal, or to be exact the place where their goal was sheltering.
Erisdale Palace, or the Crimson Palace stood by the waterfront, the many red-roofed towers that gave the palace its name, pointing towards the sky.
“Elizabeth, what are you worried about now?” Ayax asked.
Not bothering to ask how her girlfriend knew, Elizabeth contented herself with leaning on her girlfriend’s shoulder.
“Just thinking about what we got ahead. Sorry for being a spoilsport. We did win this fight quite handily,” she said.
“But you can’t help but think about the future, I know, Liz.” Ayax wrapped an arm around her beloved human. “So, what do you think they’re going to do next?”
“Well, they’ve withdrawn from the outermost walls. I think they’re going to try to fight us in the city and block our advance to the palace. I don’t want to do that, so…we need to think about that.” Elizabeth pointed not at the Crimson Palace, but at a grey fortress on the other side of the harbour mouth. Laying directly across from the palace, was a squat, octagonal keep. It was the Water Tower, and even from this distance, Ayax could see that the building was perfect for housing cannon.
“It’s closer to us than the castle. Maybe we can take it in a landward assault?” Ayax asked.
“Perhaps, I’ll have to do some planning and scouting. For now though, let’s give the troops some rest and wait for the arrival of the Erlenberg Fleet. They may have some ideas of their own,” said Elizabeth. She let go of Ayax, but the troll held on.
“And you need a break as well,” said Ayax. As her girlfriend protested weakly, Ayax tugged her girlfriend away from the rampart toward their shared tent. “I’ve been feeling very neglected of late, Liz. You have a responsibility to me too you know!”
Blushing, Elizabeth smiled and smiled wistfully. “Love you too, Ayax.”
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Respite, Athelda-Aoun…
During a visit to Kwent in her early years. Morgan had seen one of orphanages that the Kingdom of Alavaria had created for the many war orphans they had. It was very spartan, but large, often with training fields for children to play with and train in fighting. There were always plenty of weapons and target dummies in these orphanages.
Now that Morgan knew about her grandfather’s motives for the war, this was incredibly sinister. Yet, her memory of that orphanage had sparked her curiosity. What kind of orphanage would have her mentor, Frances, her uncle Timur, and all their friends have created? It probably was a happy one, or as happy as an orphanage could be, but what could that look like?
As it turned out, very large and chaotic, and Morgan wasn’t referring to the younger kids running around all over the complex.
The orphanage had one of the strangest building layouts in Athelda-Aoun. It was one building, that looked to have once been a mansion. Morgan could see original clay brickwork from the Goblin Empire era and some large windows peaking out. However, from this original building grew several newly built two-story wings, with the second story also having an encircling balcony terrace. These balconies both offered shelter from the rain beneath them and was were quite a number of children and teens relaxed or played board games.
Not all the wings grew from the original building, though. Some of these blocky wings grew from other wings, with each progressive wing looking a little finer in stonework.
This entire complex spread out along the south side of Athelda-Aoun’s lake, occupying a picture perfect view of the beach, where Morgan could see quite a few children swimming, under the watchful eye of several adults.
“What the f—heck is this?” Morgan stammered as she and Frances walked in. Her mentor was unsurprisingly being waved at and of course, she couldn’t help but smile and wave.
“A little bit of a mess unfortunately,” said Frances with a sigh as they walked towards where a new wing was being constructed.
“Damn right. It’s a goddamn mess. I hope you fired the person who designed this,” said Morgan.
“I couldn’t because I was the one who messed up.”
Morgan froze. “I mean you probably had a good reason to…to…”
Frances chuckled. “I’d like to think I had a good reason, but there were a number of things that I messed up on. I was trying to focus the project on making a simple building we could upgrade later, whilst making it comfortable. We had the original mansion to use for common areas, so we planned to add bedrooms. Except…well, there weren’t enough room for beds, it was cramped and we had to keep building with limited material and manpower…we rescued more orphans and ran out of space…” Frances sighed. “That’s why I like to help every so often to help out. My original plan was woefully inadequate and I feel responsible for that.”
Morgan nodded as they walked to the site. “But what are we doing today?”
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As it turns out, the construction work Morgan and Frances was contributing to was both monotonous and very delicate.
The new wing was going to contain an infirmary and a green house. First, Frances, under Olgakaren’s direction, lifted glass panels to steel and wooden frames. This was where Morgan, under the watchful eye of the blacksmith Blazey, soldered the glass to the frame.
Morgan, who’d done detention with the blacksmith, listened carefully. She’d learnt yesterday whilst helping the orc around the shop Blazey was very much no nonsense.
Taking a deep breath, the harpy-troll once again hovered in place and with a spell she’d learnt from Frances, applied and heated the solder. Once the gap was finished, Morgan flew down to grab another set, but Blazey waved her off.
“We’re done for today, Morgan. The panels for the next section aren’t ready yet,” said Blazey.
Morgan let out a sigh of relief. She hadn’t wanted to admit it, but she was getting a bit tired. They’d had a lunch break but after that it’d just been work, work and work.
“You did a good job, Morgan,” said Frances beaming. “Do you mind waiting a bit in Respite? I need to talk to a few people and visit the infirmary. I’ll meet you at the gates in an hour?”
“Yeah sure,” said Morgan. She turned to the lake. “Can I dip in the lake?” she asked.
“Sure. Do you know how to swim?” Frances asked. “I mean, most harpies don’t.”
“Oh, Uncle Timur taught me so I do. I’m just going for a dip really,” said Morgan.
“Okay. I’ll mostly be at the infirmary if you need to find me,” said Frances, smiling she waved to Morgan as she made for the infirmary.
As for Morgan, she took flight, racing towards the beach and the turquoise-blue water. Without hesitation she landed in the shallows, relishing the cool water over her clawed feet.
Glancing around, the princess didn’t notice anybody nearby, so with a shrug, she started to kick the water, splashing around a bit even dumping some of the fresh water over her head.
Nighttime was falling over the city of Athelda-Aoun and it was getting colder. Morgan took a moment to take in the sight of the lights flickering on in the city before turning to go back inside. She had never really checked out the “Common Building” Frances had mentioned and she was curious.
The original door to the now over-built brick mansion had been replaced with a heavy and somewhat over-built wooden door. Pushing through it, Morgan came into a hall, which opened up to a fire-place lit room.
Filled with well sat-in couches and lined with books, shelves, the common room of Respite was at this time, quite empty. Morgan suspected it was because it was going to be dinner soon. In this lonely room, sitting in front of the grand fireplace were exactly two Alavari.
John the centaur quirked an eyebrow as Morgan entered, but it was Diana who sprang to her feet, eyes narrowed.
“Oh, um, hi.” Morgan waved at the pair, smiling weakly. “Um, I’m sorry again for…knocking you over, and the swearing.”
“We know, and we’ve accepted it,” said John, rising slowly. He gave Morgan a disarming smile, much to the harpy-troll’s relief.
“What are you doing here?” Diana asked, drawing the blanket she had tighter around herself.
“Oh um, Frances had something to do and I’m just waiting for her to be finished,” said Morgan.
Diana nodded, “But why are you here in the first place?”
Morgan swallowed. “Oh, um, as part of my punishment for pushing you over. Frances said I needed to help her with the green house. Sorry, I really don’t mean to disturb—”
She did not expect Diana and John to glance at each other and sigh.